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Iran Says Ukrainian Jet Was Downed by Two Short-Range Missiles

Aircraft moved past a residential area and its first physical contact with the ground was at a public park.

Iran Says Ukrainian Jet Was Downed by Two Short-Range Missiles
Rescue workers search the wreckage of a Boeing Co. 737-800 aircraft, operated by Ukraine International Airlines, which crashed shortly after takeoff near Shahedshahr, Iran. (Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg)  

(Bloomberg) -- A Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed after taking off from the Iranian capital on Jan. 8 was downed by two short-range surface-to-air missiles, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said in a second preliminary investigation report.

The Tor-M1 missiles were launched at the Kyiv-bound Boeing 737-800 jetliner from the north, according to the report.

It also said:

  • Plane took off from Tehran at 6:12 a.m. local time and lost all contact with air traffic control at 8,100 feet
  • Aircraft disappeared from secondary surveillance radar screens at 6:15 a.m. and from primary surveillance radars at 6:18 a.m.
  • Aircraft moved past a residential area and its first physical contact with the ground was at a public park. Plane was torn apart as it moved through a football pitch, nearby farmland and gardens
  • The retrieved flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder are “some of the most advanced equipment of their kind in the world” and Iran lacks the facilities to decode them
  • French and U.S. accident investigation agencies have refused to send necessary equipment to Iran for decoding the black boxes

To contact the reporter on this story: Arsalan Shahla in Tehran at ashahla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Erin Zlomek

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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